MURCHISON FALLS NATIONAL PARK
Murchison falls National Park lies at the Northern end of the Albertine
Rift valley, where the bulky Bunyoro escarpments merges into the vast plains of
Acholi land. One of Uganda’s
oldest conservation areas, it was initially gazetted as a game reserve in 1926
to protect a savanna that Winston Churchill described in 1907 as “Kew Gardens
and the zero combined on an unlimited scale.
Murchison falls National Park has received many notable foreign visitors.
In 1907, Winston Churchill hiked. Boated and bicycles up the Nile
corridor to the falls. He was followed by Theodore Roosevelt in 1909 during a
hunting Safari.
In 1951, the falls provided a backdrop of Humphrey Bogart in John
Huston’s famous movie, the African queen which was filmed on location along the
Murchison Nile and on Lake Albert. British
royals have also visited Murchison, the Prince of Wales (later Edward Vii) in
1930 and the queen mother in 1959.
The least happy celebrity visitor was Ernest Hemingway in 1954 who
literary dropped in his intention was simply to over fly the waterfall but his
plane clipped on old telegraph wire strung across the gorge and cartwheeled
into the riverline forest. Hemingway and his wife were rescued and taken to
Butiaba where their rescue plane crashed on takeoff.
The Park is bisected by the Victoria Nile which first races down 80Km of
whitewater rapids before plunging 40m over the remnant rift wall at Murchison
falls, the centerpiece of the park. This waterfall was named in 1864 by the
explorer Samuel Baker who considered “the most important object through the
entire course of the river.
The stretch of the river provides one of Uganda’s most memorable wildlife
specialists which includes regular visitors like elephants, giraffe and buffalo
while the hippopotamus and Nile crocodile are permanent residents.
The park covers 3,893 Km3 and it is Uganda’s largest protected area. It
is part of the even larger Murchison protected area which includes the
adjoining Karuma and Bugungu wildlife reserves.
The Albert Nile corridor is Uganda’s lowest area (612 at Delta
point) and temperatures can be hot with a mean maximum of 29°C.
The hottest time are mid December to mid February and Tune- July,
tempered by rainy seasons in April and November.
